After the Hunt review. “It happened at Yale”.

by Brandon Norwood

Why?" Julia Roberts' Alama asks Ayo Edibiri's Maggie. Why did Maggie tell Alma of her sexual assault? That question of why permeates throughout the film. Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt explores head on the use of power and privilege that all the characters are in throughout the film.

Debuting out of the Toronto International Film Festival, After the Hunt was met with a chilly reception. Yes, it's too long for its own good. Yes, it insists that its more important than it is. But I do feel as if there's a lot the film brings up to talk about.

Alma (Ayo Edibiri) is a teacher assistant who looks up to Maggie (Julia Roberts), a Yale professor. Maggie has the perfect life. A eccentric psychiatrist husband named Fredrick (Michael Stuhlbarg), a close friend named Hank (Andrew Garfield), who can meet her intellectually who also happens to be a professor at Yale like herself. Everything changes when Maggie comes forward to Maggie with allegations of sexual assault against Hank that threatens to reveal a secret of her own.

I've been having a lot of conversations about this movie. All the takes are very different from mine. That is the one thing that I feel has put off a lit of people. There are no clear answers. Even if to me there is. The film is taking a very clear approach about this. A young, queer woman of color, from a privileged background, is accusing a man in power. The power and privilege dynamics really are the backbone of this film. Every gaze or look the characters give are up to interpretation by the viewer on what it means in the moment and the overall story.

I sat raptured watching the character tug and pull at each other in ways that are extremely cruel. I seriously had no idea where this was going moment to moment and wondered just how Luca would land this story. 

Luca is a deliberate filmmaker. That continues in After the Hunt with the camera movements as well as the angles and use of negative space to frame the actors. Even in a crowded room, these are lonely people. Much has been said about Luca using the font made famous in films by Woody Allen, and that too is deliberate. This for many different reasons feels like a Woody Allen movie left out to curdle. Including the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross which sounds as if a score from a Woody movie was left out to rot.

I’ll be honest here. Not everything worked for me. It is too long for its own good. At two hours and nineteen minutes, this should have been much shorter. Considering that there was three parts were I thought the film was ending, I wasn’t really sure. And the very last scene, to me, did nothing for the overall narrative in the film other than reinforcing privilege and power. With the current climate, I do not think that last scene really convey what it is trying to other than “Hey! Some people still get away and have it all”. No kidding.

I would like to highlight Ayo Edebiri. I cannot and will not harp on the cast. Everyone knows they’re great. Especially under the direction of Luca. But the fact that Ayo held her own against heavyweight actors is a true testament to her talents. I’m really excited to see where her career goes as she has so much range. This is a challenging role to play. There’s hard lines on how everyone is written with the subtext doing a lot of heavy lifting.

I’m very eager to have more conversations about this film. I find that this film does open up many conversations worth having. Mainly due to the fact that the conversations that I have had, have been wildly different. Everyone is gonna have a different read on this. And that’s exciting.

After the Hunt opens in limited release on October 10th. Nationwide on October 17th.